


Pieces

by nerdzeword



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, angst up the wazoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 07:03:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10328753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword
Summary: I wrote this in like a half an hour at 2:00 in the morning. So sorry if it sucks.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in like a half an hour at 2:00 in the morning. So sorry if it sucks.

> "We build it up, we tear it down
> 
> We leave our pieces on the ground
> 
> We see no end, we don't know how
> 
> We are lost and we're falling"
> 
> -Pieces by Rob Thomas

Hermione waited for him at the door. He had gotten off with very little retribution, thanks to her and Harry’s testimonies. He had every reason to be thanking her, and yet…

“Draco. We need to talk.” She called out as he walked past. He sneered at her and Hermione forced herself to remain calm. It had been so long since she had seen that sneer directed at her.

“What do you want Granger. A thank you?” She shook her head.

“No, I just want you to listen to me.” He scoffed at her before turning away without a word. Hermione felt her heart break just a little bit more. She thought that it would be easier this way, that it would hurt less, knowing that he could remember everything they had once meant to one another. Turns out, she was wrong. Having someone remember what you had together and decide that something you had supposedly done meant more than all of it, was much, much worse.

  


The thing was, Hermione reflected later, she couldn’t even blame him. He had warned her that he would hate her for it. That was, after all the point in giving him false memories of her cheating. He had warned her that that was the worst thing that anyone could ever do to him, and that she would have a hard time convincing him to take her back. That he would have a hard time trusting her again. Hermione hadn’t realized how right he was.

Sixteen owls and too many angry conversations to count, later, she no longer had a problem understanding what Draco was talking about. What she didn’t understand, was what was so unforgivable about having cheated, especially as she  _ told  _ him that it had never even happened. But it didn’t matter now, she was done. She was done having her heart break a little every time he sneered at her, and her eyes tear up every time he slammed the door in her face. Draco was her everything, and now he had chosen to be nothing. She had to accept that. After three months of trying, Hermione Granger was finally giving up. She was done using her heart as a battering ram.

  


_________

  


The problem, Draco considered, was that he still loved her just as much as she so obviously loved him. He had thought that by being mean and cruel to her, that she would somehow stop loving him, thus making it easier for him to stop loving her. He had been wrong. Instead, it had just made them both miserable, and made him want her more. 

He always forgot that the opposite of hate may be love, but the opposite of love wasn’t hate. He just wasn’t sure how to tell her that. He had no idea how to tell her that he promised himself that he wouldn’t stay with someone who cheated on him, no matter how much he loved them. How to tell her that every day his resolve got weaker and weaker, and merlin did he love her, but the pact was the first real decision he had ever made for himself and he didn’t ever want to give that up. How he so desperately wished that her story were real, and how he also wished it weren’t because if it was real it would mean that he had been awful to her for no reason. That he had intentionally hurt her, and he didn’t know if he could live with himself if he did that.

But most of all, he didn’t know how to tell her that even if he never forgave her for what she did or didn’t do, he would also never be able to love anyone so hard or so much as he did her. 

  


___________

  


Draco found her right where he knew she would be. She was sitting cross legged in the snow, a wreath of roses sitting between the graves in front of her. She shivered slightly in the wind, despite her heavy cloak. Draco pulled his own off and draped it around her shoulders without a word. He sat down beside her and they continued to stare at the graves in silence. 

“What are you doing here Draco?” Hermione murmured after a minute. 

“What I should have done months ago.” He conjured a rose of his own and handed it to her. She took it and stared at it without a word, so Draco took that as his cue to go on. “I’m sorry Hermione. I should have believed you, and even if I didn’t, it shouldn’t have mattered. You mean more than the world to me, and if you ever forgive me, I’ll be the luckiest man alive.” She stared at him a moment. Her cheeks were red from the bite of the wind, and her face still had tear trails. 

  


Hermione stared at the love of her life, searching his eyes for some form of sign. That this was real, that he wanted her back. That he still loved her. She quickly shut her brain down. No. He had put her through enough heartache. She would get over him. She would. She would move on, and find someone less complicated and incredible, and she would love them and she would be happy.

“Months Draco, that’s how long I spent  chasing after you, trying to make you believe me. Trying to make you understand. And you brushed me off. Now you come back and expect me to forgive you just like that? I get it Draco, you didn’t believe me. But one infraction that may or may not have actually happened meant more to you than the three years we’d invested in our relationship!” He smiled slightly, that adorable little smile that he always used when he was looking at her. Hermione didn’t think she had ever seen him use it with anyone else, which was when she was suddenly sure that while she would be happy with her imaginary future boyfriend, she would also spend every day for the rest of her life, wondering just what might have happened if she had just given Draco a chance. He stood up. 

“Look Hermione. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I’m a selfish person by nature and I can’t just let you go without at least trying. My parents didn’t have what we have. They didn’t love one another, and I never wanted that for myself. So if you can honestly say that you don’t love me anymore Granger, I’ll go. You won’t have to see me anymore at all. But if you do, don’t you think we’re worth one more shot?” 

“Draco. I-I can’t. You hurt me, and that’s going to take a lot longer than this to heal.” Hermione wanted to tell him, that she loved him, that she forgave him. But she knew that she needed time to think, to get his wonderful musky smell out of her senses, and to write up a pros and cons list. She could almost hear Draco’s voice in her head  _ You can’t rationalize love, Hermione. You can only let it happen.  _ Well Hermione was done letting it happen. She was done putting her heart out there for him to break without a second thought. If she let him in again, it wa going to be on her own terms. He gazed at her for a minute and Hermione’s heart nearly broke again at the way his face fell before he turned and started walking off.

“Well, If you change your mind, you know where to find me.” he waved over his shoulder without turning back, and Hermione couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d made a huge mistake.

  


1 year later.

  


Hermione was nearly running by the time she got to her office, she had so much to  _ do  _ and so little time to do it in. She shoved the door open and nearly ran into the person standing behind it. She looked up and her breath caught in her throat. 

“Hermione.” He greeted her tentatively. She thought she could see a flicker of fear in his eyes, but she could be wrong. It had been a year. She probably couldn’t read him anymore.

“Malfoy.” She greeted him, as if the heart she had thrown in a steel box the year before hadn’t just opened and allowed all of her pent up emotions to come flooding out. 

“I told you I wasn’t giving up on us Hermione. I’m not giving up on you. I had hoped-” his voice broke but Hermione knew what he was trying to say. He had hoped that she could come to him. That she would forgive him and take him back. And in a way, she had. She had forgiven him, she had taken him back. Her pride had just gotten in the way of telling him that.

“You hoped I would have come to you.” She finished for him. He nodded.

“But like I said, I told you I wasn’t letting you go without a fight. So this is me, asking you to dinner.” Hermione blinked in surprise

“What, no grovelling?” She blurted out. He smirked at her in response.

“I’ve done my grovelling. It obviously didn’t work. So I’m starting over, I’m going to make you fall for me all over again.” It was just so arrogant and  _ Draco, _ that Hermione started laughing.

“Oh Draco, I never stopped.” Hermione stood on tiptoes, and kissed him. Hard.

“You’re still taking me to dinner though.” She stated when they had broken apart. 


End file.
